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PulseAudio

PulseAudio is an open source sound server that supports advanced software mixing capabilities and network transparency. It was created by Red Hat developer Lennart Poettering and began to see widespread adoption in 2007. It is shipped today by default in the vast majority of desktop Linux distributions, but it is also compatible with other operating systems, including Windows.

The aim of PulseAudio was to simplify and modernize Linux audio. It enables a number of significant sound-related capabilities that boost the competitiveness of the Linux platform. In particular, it allows the user to transparently redirect the target output device of an audio stream without any disruption. It also made it possible to support per-application volume control and a desktop-wide equalizer.

One of the most compelling features of PulseAudio is its support for network transparency. Audio can be redirected to another PulseAudio-enabled computer on the user's local network for playback. For example, you can configure a laptop to play sound out of the speakers connected to a desktop computer. The network-based audio redirection uses the Zeroconf protocol for automatic discovery. Network transparent audio has proven particularly useful for thin client configurations where audio is processed on the server but is piped to the thin client's speakers.

Despite the desirability of PulseAudio's functionality, its adoption by the Linux distributors initially faced fierce resistance from end users. The transition to PulseAudio was extremely disruptive due to a variety of technical challenges.

Earlier versions were highly fragile and conflicted badly with many longstanding assumptions that application developers had made about how to handle audio on the Linux platform. To make matters worse, the major Linux distributors had difficulty understanding how to properly integrate and configure PulseAudio.

PulseAudio threw the Linux audio stack into a state of complete chaos for roughly two years, during which it was a major challenge to get even basic audio functionality to work properly on a consistent basis. The issues were eventually resolved, however, and PulseAudio has since largely lived up to its promise of an improved Linux audio stack.